Pillar of Fire (127 page)

DeLoach had thrown together: Garrow,
FBI and Martin
, pp. 118-19; O'Reilly,
Racial Matters
, pp. 186-87.

“to embarrass the President”: H. N. Bassett to Callahan, Jan. 29, 1975, reprinted in Church,
Hearings Before the Select Committee
, p. 634.

supplied by NBC News: Ibid., p. 636.

Rustin was telling King: NY LHM dated Aug. 25, 1964, FK-NR, pp. 1-4.

“fall by the wayside”: NY LHM dated Aug. 24, 1965, FR-NR.

Larry Still described:
Jet
, Sept. 3, 1964, pp. 22-26.

voices at the Gem Motel: Mills,
The Little Light
, p. 123.

“After the first Negro”: Ibid., p. 120.

416 night telegrams: Burner,
Gently He Shall Lead
, p. 175.

“won the Boardwalk”: Int. Joseph Rauh, Oct. 17, 1983.

“We won't take”: WP, Aug. 23, 1964, p. 24.

twenty-six major credentials contests: MFDP brief, pp. 72-73. For discovering the Texas precedent, Rauh gave credit to his co-author and young legal assistant Eleanor K. Holmes (Norton), who would serve a generation later as U.S. representative from the District of Columbia. Int. Joseph Rauh, Oct. 17, 1983.

Texas case of 1944: Dugger,
The Politician
, pp. 137-38.

“The thing is out of hand now!”: LBJ phone call with James Eastland, 6:21
P.M.
, Aug. 22, 1964, Cit. 5130, Audiotape WH6408.33, LBJ.

“to be perfectly frank”: LBJ phone call with James Eastland, 7:10
P.M.
, Aug. 22, 1964, Cit. 5131, Audiotape WH6408.33, LBJ.

“People oughtn't to want”: LBJ phone call with James Eastland, 12:02
P.M.
, Aug. 22, 1964, Cit. 5121, Audiotape WH6408.33, LBJ.

shutting off the cotton subsidy: LBJ phone call with James Eastland, 3:35
P.M.
, Aug. 22, 1964, Cit. 5133, Audiotape WH6408.33, LBJ.

best Eastland could secure: LBJ phone call with James Eastland, 4:56
P.M.
, Aug. 23, 1964, Cit. 5138, Audiotape WH6408.34, LBJ.

“I thought he was gonna procrastinate”: LBJ phone call with Walter Jenkins, 3:58
P.M.
, Aug. 23, 1964, Cit. 5136, Audiotape WH6408.34, LBJ.

Mondale to head: Garrow,
Bearing the Cross
, p. 347.

exhausted recess toward dawn: NYT, Aug. 25, 1964, p. 23.

circular picket line: Ibid., p. 24; int. Dorothy Zellner, Dec. 12, 1991.

lobster feasts around open beach fires:
Life
, Sept. 4, 1964, pp. 20-28.

plunged on horseback: NYT, Aug. 23, 1964, p. 81.

“get lost in the business”: LBJ phone call with Walter Reuther, 8:46
A.M.
, Aug. 24, 1964, Cit. 5140, Audiotape WH6408.34, LBJ.

“In the last few days”: MLK to LBJ, Aug. 24, 1964, WHCF, Box 52, LBJ. An attached note from Paul People to Lee White reads, “I have sent the blue copy in to the President.”

“trying to get me in it”: LBJ phone call with Richard Russell, 11:10
A.M.
, Aug. 24, 1964, Cit. 5143, Audiotape WH6408.34, LBJ.

the Kennedy myth: Miller,
Lyndon
, pp. 472-74.

two much anticipated events: Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy
, pp. 715-16;
Life
, Sept. 4, 1964, pp. 30-31.

mount surveillance of Kennedy: WP, Jan. 26, 1975, p. 1.

“refused to elaborate”: Jones to DeLoach, Aug. 25, 1964, FRFK-1653.

“applause hit like thunder”: Schlesinger,
Robert Kennedy
, p. 716.

“obviously another attempt”: Jones to DeLoach, Aug. 24, 1964, FRFK-1686. On the
Washington Post
article of Aug. 23, 1964, entitled “Kennedy Top-Rated as Justice Boss,” by reporter James Clayton, Hoover wrote, “What do we know of Clayton?”

“got a virus”: Juanita Roberts to LBJ, Aug. 24, 1964, and Juanita Roberts to “Dorothy,” March 1, 1965, Ex PL1/ST24, Box 81, LBJ.

into the Pageant Motel: NYT, Aug. 25, 1964, p. 23.

Humphrey passionately advocated: Int. Joseph Rauh by Anne Romaine, June 1967, A/AR, pp. 331-32.

direct and indirect orders: Cf. LBJ phone call with Hubert Humphrey, Aug. 14, 1964, Cit. 4917, Audiotape WH6408.19, LBJ: “Well, I left it up to you and Ken O'Donnell to handle this Mississippi thing.”

fn “You better talk”: LBJ phone call with Walter Reuther, Aug. 17, 1964, Cit. 5003, Audiotape WH6408.27, LBJ.

Humphrey protested: Mills,
This Little Light
, p. 125; Anne Romaine interviews with Joseph Rauh, Fannie Lou Hamer, Edwin King, Allard Lowenstein, Robert P. Moses, A/AR; int. Robert P. Moses, Oct. 11, 1983, March 13, 1988; Dittmer,
Local People
, p. 294.

“I walked into the lion's den”: LBJ phone call with Hubert Humphrey and Walter Jenkins, Aug. 24, 1964, Cit. 5156-57, Audiotape WH6408.34, LBJ.

Lawrence and Joseph Rauh parried: Int. Joseph Rauh by Anne Romaine, June 1967, A/AR, pp. 333-35.

troubles over Alabama: NYT, Aug. 25, 1964, pp. 1, 23.

Connor of Birmingham: NYT, Sept. 6, 1964, p. 42.

“This is as embarrassing as all hell”: NYT, Aug. 25, 1964, p. 23.

“he owes me $400”: Comments of Bill Minor, reporter for the
New Orleans Times-Picayune
, at “Covering the South: A National Symposium on the Media and the Civil Rights Movement,” University of Mississippi, April 1987.

Rauh had lost control: Int. Joseph Rauh, Oct. 17, 1983.

“so that it looks right”: LBJ phone call with James Reston and Arthur Sulzberger, 7:16
P.M.
, Aug. 24, 1964, Cit. 5162-62, Audiotape WH6408.35, LBJ.

“They are just distressed”: LBJ phone call with Walter Reuther, 8:25
P.M.
, Aug. 24, 1964, Cit. 5165, Audiotape WH6408.35, LBJ; PDD, Aug. 23-24, 1964.

550,000 automobile workers: NYT, Aug. 25, 1964, p. 14.

into Atlantic City before dawn: Dittmer,
Local People
, p. 294.

dinner off trays: PDD, Aug. 24, 1964.

fn plane to fetch the Steinbecks: LBJ phone call with John Steinbeck, Aug. 21, 1964, Cit. 5111, Audiotape WH6408.32, LBJ.

fn novelist had developed: Int. Jack Valenti, Feb. 25, 1991. Steinbeck posed forty-one questions about Johnson's taste and personality (“Of what is he afraid?…Is he ever silly?”), and offered suggestions ranging from gestures (“Let him choose a favorite flower…. Meeting any one at all, let him take it from his button hole and present it”) to speech delivery: “…by wrong emphasis and dull delivery, he missed most of the punch lines. He just spoke it off sync…. That's why I'd like to know if he can carry a tune. We know from his dancing that he has a good sense of rhythm.”

In the summer of 1964, Steinbeck sent ideas to LBJ through Jack Valenti. He recommended that Johnson attack Goldwater (“This jack-ass is nuts”) for suggesting that “the German soldier was superior to the American fighting man….” After the Tonkin Gulf incident, he recommended that the United States sink North Vietnamese ships as pirates. “What you call a thing is very important,” Steinbeck advised.

Steinbeck, “Notes and questions for J.V. about LBJ,” nd, AC 84-57, Valenti Papers, LBJ; Steinbeck to Jack Valenti, July 10, 1964, AC 84-57, Valenti Papers, LBJ; “Goldwater Interview with
Der Spiegel
,” NYT, July 10, 1964; “Transcript of Unpublished Part of
Der Spiegel's
Interview with Goldwater,” NYT, July 11, 1964, p. 10; Moyers to LBJ, July 14, 1964, Box 8, Office of the President, LBJ; Steinbeck to Jack Valenti, Aug. 5, 1964, AC 84-57, Valenti Papers, LBJ.

“Full Fiery Throttle”:
Life
, Sept. 4, 1964, pp. 20-21.

“I am not going to”: Draft statements from Mrs. Johnson and Jack Valenti, Aug. 1964, Ex PL1/ST24, LBJ.

“Unbroken Harmony”: NYT, Aug. 25, 1964, p. 1.

“everyone of those big states”: LBJ phone call with John Bailey, 9:22
A.M.
, Aug. 25, 1964, Cit. 5173-74, Audiotape WH6408.35, LBJ.

disclosed a new plan: LBJ phone call with A. W. Moursund, 10:05
A.M.
, Aug. 25, 1964, Cit. 5175, Audiotape WH6408.36, LBJ.

When George Reedy called: LBJ phone call with George Reedy, Aug. 25, 1964, Cit. 5176, Audiotape WH6408.36, LBJ.

fn “The times require leadership”: Ibid.

“If anybody's entitled”: LBJ phone call with Walter Jenkins, Aug. 25, 1964, Cit. 5177, Audiotape WH6408.36, LBJ.

“I do not remember hours”: Johnson,
White House Diary
, p. 192. The Johnsons' cook, Zephyr Wright, was another family intimate who said she believed until the last minute that President Johnson would drop out of the 1964 race. Miller,
Lyndon
, p. 475.

decisive crunch: Dittmer,
Local People
, pp. 293-98; Burner,
Gently He Shall Lead
, pp. 180-84; Hampton,
Voices of Freedom
, pp. 200-202; Mills,
This Little Light
, pp. 126-28; NYT, Aug. 26, 1964, p. 1; WP, Aug. 26, 1964, p. 1.

wiretaps picked up frantic consultations: DeLoach to Walter Jenkins, “Morning Summary of Activities,” Aug. 25, 1964, cited in U.S. Senate,
Hearings Before the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities
, vol. 6, pp. 714-17.

“The convention has decided”: Int. Joseph Rauh by Anne Romaine, June 1967, A/AR; Joseph Rauh Oral History by Paige Mulhollan, July 30, 1969, LBJ; int. Joseph Rauh, Oct. 17, 1983.

terminate Rauh's employment: Ibid. Reuther told President Johnson of a similar threat four days earlier: “I talked to Joe Rauh, and I talked to him as seriously as I ever talked to any human being, and I said, ‘Look, Joe, we've been friends for years, and you're our lawyer, and by God, if you don't work this thing out on a sensible, reasonable basis, then you and I are gonna part company, because I'm in the President's corner on this thing all the way.'” LBJ phone call with Walter Reuther, Aug. 21, 1964, Cit. 5112, Audiotape WH6408.32, LBJ.

“Your funding is on the line”: Int. Robert P. Moses, Aug. 11, 1983; int. Joseph Rauh, Oct. 17, 1983.

2,316 to 2,318: WP, Aug. 26, 1964, p. 6.

Moses bridled: Int. Robert P. Moses, Aug. 11, 1983.

Edwin King suggested: Int. Edwin King, June 26, 1992.

“The President will not allow”: Int. Edwin King by Anne Romaine, Nov. 1966, A/AR.

“You cheated!”: Ibid. Also int. Robert P. Moses, Feb. 15, 1991.

“a white man hitting”: Int. Joseph Rauh, Oct. 17, 1983.

Lawrence admitted: WP, Aug. 26, 1964, p. 6.

“actually raised his voice”: Belfrage,
Freedom Summer
, p. 252.

“a wholesale walkout”: LBJ phone call with Carl Sanders and John Connally, Cit. 5183-84, Audiotape WH6408.37, LBJ.

“Mississippi's debt”: WP, Aug. 27, 1964, p. 2.

Rauh shed tears: Int. Joseph Rauh, Oct. 17, 1983.

vigil escalated swiftly: Belfrage,
Freedom Summer
, pp. 252-54.

helping to smuggle MFDP members: WP, Aug. 26, 1964, p. 6.

“I made about four”: Sutherland,
Letters from Mississippi
, pp. 220-21.

only three of them: Fred Berger of Natchez, Randolph Holladay of Picayune, and Douglas Wynn of Greenville. Mills,
This Little Light
, p. 131.

fn “You're a patriot”: LBJ phone call with Doug Wynn, Aug. 25, 1964, Cit. 5209, Audiotape WH6408.38, LBJ.

fn Klan death threats: LBJ phone call with Jack Valenti, Aug. 31, 1964, Cit. 5286, Audiotape WH6408.43, LBJ; LBJ phone call with Nicholas Katzenbach, Aug. 31, 1964, Cit. 5294, Audiotape WH6408.43, LBJ.

riots and demonstrations: LBJ phone call with Walter Jenkins, Aug. 25, 1964, Cit. 5210, Audiotape WH6408.38, LBJ.

Watson angrily ordered: Walter Adams to Walter Jenkins, Sept. 1, 1964, PL1/ST24, Box 81, LBJ.

Moses waved off: Dittmer,
Local People
, p. 299.

Reedy hesitantly answered a summons: Reedy,
Lyndon B. Johnson
, p. 55.

“By God, I'm gonna go”: Int. George Reedy, May 8, 1991.

“the dumb bastards on your side”: Int. Joseph Rauh, Oct. 17, 1983.

“I honestly don't care”: Int. Joseph Rauh by Anne Romaine, June 1967, A/AR.

“You're a traitor”: Forman,
Black Revolutionaries
, p. 392.